


Langers

by bones96



Category: Unavowed (Video Game)
Genre: An American's butchering of the Irish dialect, Attempted Seduction, Drunk Mandana, F/M, Respectful Eli
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:42:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24355264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bones96/pseuds/bones96
Summary: In the aftermath of the Wall Street mission, an inebriated Mandana decides Eli needs the kind of comfort only she can provide.
Relationships: Eli Beckett/Mandana (Unavowed)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Langers

**Author's Note:**

> Haha comment make writer brain work. I am pathetic. I was also inspired by the fact that the fandom kind of blew up for a second there. Two new fics in the span of a day? What a gift! Anyway, here's something I started a year ago and never looked at again until this week.
> 
> This assumes that Wall Street is the final mission they go on before the finale. And of course that Mandana went along to rescue Elijah. Also it doesn't come up at all but you can also assume that Fellows was killed because honestly fuck that guy. 
> 
> (Also sorry for Mandana's dialogue. I tried. I researched a lot of Irish slang for this but it still probably doesn't come off as too realistic.)

Eli catches a reflection of something behind him in his fireball. The information in this Byzantine manuscript is mostly conjecture anyway, so he lets the flame die and turns around. “It’s late, Mandy. Why are you down here?”

“For a ride, what else?” Mandana is standing on the bottom stair, leaning against the railing. She has a huge grin on her face — absolutely glowing. “You fucked me all better when my oul man died, I’m here to return the favor.” Her brogue isn’t quite as unintelligible as it was at the bank earlier, but it’s still difficult for Eli to parse what she’s saying. Absorbing wine directly into her bloodstream has got her drunker than actually drinking it ever has. 

“A ‘ride,’” Eli repeats cautiously. “That’s… sex, right?”

“Aye, nothing like a good ride to get you back in spirits. I know yer in a sorry state that you lost the babby.”

“Lost the baby? Elijah is fine, we saved him and reunited him with his parents, remember?” With care and concern, he takes her hand and sits her down in his desk chair. “Is your mind feeling a little fuzzy, maybe?”

She ignores his question and resists being put in a chair, stumbling right back up to her feet. “Not lost him like he’s passed, _lost_ him like you lost your other babbies.” She points an accusatory finger at the air behind Eli’s shoulder. “Yer in a state like trying to burn off my oul man’s beard cause he wouldn’t let you go to Julie’s graduation.” She cackles at the image. “It’s a sad story but it’s bleedin’ funny too. Now, c’mere…” She falls forward deliberately, throwing her arms around his shoulders. She tries to kiss him but Eli dodges, and her lips land wetly against his cheek.

The sad thing is, she’s kind of right. What happened today is tearing Eli up inside, and yes, he absolutely needs something to numb the pain. Leaving his daughters behind with not a word to them was unbearably painful, but telling his grandson to leave New York was somehow even harder. Even if Travis couldn’t read the subtext, it was there. Eli actively banished the Cooks from his life. He _told_ them, _to their faces_ , that they couldn’t be his family. And he misses them already. He can hold out hope that Elijah’s magic will bring them back together someday, but “someday” could be decades from now. He needs a distraction instead of yearning for someday. But he planned to do that with tireless research into pocket realms. He doesn’t need… he doesn’t need…

Eli grabs Mandana’s arms and gingerly moves them back to her sides. “We did the right thing and I’m glad about it. I’m fine,” he says, forgetting that beneath the drunken antics, this is still Mandana.

“Li-ar…” she says in a sing-song voice, swaying her hips in time with her cadence. She begins to unbutton her blouse, and the modest high neckline quickly gives way to outstanding cleavage. She catches Eli staring and giggles. “Now tell me you want it, you finer.”

“Mandana, you’re hammered.” Eli rips his gaze from her chest. “You have so much alcohol in your system that I’m afraid I’ll make you internally combust.”

“Impossible, and you know it.” She slips her hands into his back pockets. Her ability to contort her body so she’s literally pressed against every square centimeter of him will never cease to amaze him.

“Okay. Look, I appreciate that you want to make me feel better. I wish —” He shudders as Mandana rolls her hips against his, making him betray himself. He wishes they could. _Shit_ , does he wish they could. “But I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

Mandana continues writhing until her movement drags an involuntary groan out of Eli. She smiles, satisfied at having gotten a reaction out of him, and finally, _finally_ she stops, taking a merciful step away from him. “Too good for your own good,” she says. “Aye, but you’ll regret it when I’m sober.”

“Get some rest, Mandy. You need to sleep this off if you want any hope of functioning tomorrow,” he says. Hypocritical. He knows he isn’t getting any sleep tonight.

Mandana replies simply, “Can’t find my bottle.”

It’s doubtful that her bottle has left its usual shelf. It would be so easy for Eli to take her hand, lead her upstairs and help get her reoriented. But he’s feeling selfish. Even if they’re not having their ride, Mandana’s presence is comforting to him. He wants her to stay. 

“So sleep here tonight.”

“In one of these, you mean!” Mandana gestures to the many fire extinguishers littered about the basement and hoists up one of the taller ones. “That I can do, but I’ll have to make room.” She lifts the hose, preparing to empty it, but Eli intervenes. 

“No!” He grabs the extinguisher from her before she can spray foam all over the room and sets it back down. “In my bed.” 

He crosses the room to the bed and Mandana watches as he smooths out his rumpled sheets and tucks them in tight for her. “No point in a bed if there’s no one in it beside you,” she comments. He fluffs up the pillow and she scoffs and adds, “Feckin’ beds. I hate beds.”

“I know you do. But this’ll be good for you, okay?”

He turns around to find that Mandana has snuck up and caught him nose-to-nose. She fiddles with the bottom of his tie as she looks into his eyes. “No matter what, you got a family right here,” she whispers, then kisses him, a prolonged and gentle smooch on the lips. Her lips taste like fresh fruit and sea salt, and Eli decides he can forgive himself for sighing and leaning into the kiss just a little bit. Mandana is grinning and giggling when they part; she pats him on the cheek and then collapses into bed, passing out instantly. 

Eli laughs and shakes his head. “Good night, Mandy.”

Mandana is not a pretty sleeper. There’s snoring. There’s drooling. She’s sprawled out on top of the blanket, limbs contorted in ways even someone as flexible as her couldn’t possibly find comfortable, and her headscarf is loose and bunched up against the pillow, freeing wisps of hair that land on her lips as she tosses and turns, making her sputter and cough in her sleep. The alcohol is surely making it worse, but Eli has spent enough sober nights with her to know that this isn’t unusual. He wonders if this is why she dislikes sleeping outside of her bottle so much — someone once told her to keep her snoring down and she’s been embarrassed about it ever since. But personally, Eli likes this look on her. It’s endearing. Humanizing. He feels more grounded watching her. 

Maybe it will make him feel better to squeeze in bed next to Mandana and hold her until he falls asleep crying. It will make him forget for his leg to go numb curled up against her back or for their arms to intertwine while neither of them have control over their own bodies. They have a rough day ahead of them tomorrow, though, and as the token bookworm, he has a job to do. He searches under the bed for the extra blanket he never feels the need to use and spreads it out over Mandana, then returns to his desk chair. Regrets of the family he found and lost again creep back into his head as he lights up his fire reading. But when he peers over the top of it and sees her lying there, he feels better. It doesn’t make him forget. But the reminder that she will always be there for him gets him through the night all the same.

**Author's Note:**

> I might do a part two about hangover sex the next morning, but that would be a hard E and I don't want to raise the rating on this so that would be a sequel instead of a second chapter.


End file.
